Roguish
by blunted-edge
Summary: A short, entirely too fluffy encounter with a famous bandit in the rain.


AN: This was a rather random oneshot I wrote up when bored. Enjoy it or not, I don't mind.

It was raining quite heavily. Made me glad I didn't wear metal armors. Glass armor was pretty, even when broken, really. Sometimes even when dirty. What made it bad was that the rain was that kind of hot, sticky rain that made you sweat and feel like you needed a long scrub in a cold bathtub to make you feel better.

Considering I hadn't had a bath in a week, or proper sleep, and I'd been simply wandering aimlessly after - after Red Mountain, a hard scrub in freezing water actually didn't sound so horrible. I wasn't tired, though, so I kept walking slowly down a road south of Pelagiad, swaying a little and letting the oiled cloak over my pauldrons swish around my booted feet.

I think I looked a little melancholy. My hair was long, dripping wet, and hanging down in front of my face as I looked down at the road only a foot in front of me. My feet trumped onto the ground in a way where I swayed side-to-side quite a lot. But I didn't care. I wasn't sad.

Was I?

I don't know. But I don't think I was. No, I wasn't. I couldn't be sad about killing him. It was impossible. He was evil.

Fine, okay, I'll tell you. My soul felt sick. As if Nerevar Indoril was sad and I wasn't. Or, maybe, my purpose as the Nerevarine had been completed and the borrowed life inside of me was telling me that I was of no more use and that I should return it back to wherever souls went to nowadays. I don't know. But I didn't have any friends, no one cared if I - Allyn - lived or died now that Dagoth Ur was gone.

And it was rain that ran down my cheek. Not a tear. It wasn't Nerevar's or mine or anyone else's fetching tear. It was the fetching rain. That's what all those drops running down my cheeks were, not-tears. I still had to sniff and wipe them away though. The sniffing was from allergies, not crying.

"Well! Who do we have here," A smoothly-rough Dunmeri voice called out and I started and looked up. There was a man leaning on the trunk of the tree to the side of the road, standing out of the rain; he had an incomplete set of bonemould armor on, without the helmet, and he looked rather handsome. Probably a rogue. "A beautiful, strong woman? It seems you are in distress! Why is such a lovely lady crying?"

Yes... a rogue. I looked back down to the road, letting my hair hang down around my face again and thinking about how sticky I felt inside of my armor. I hadn't taken it off in a week. How pathetic.

"Oh..." I think he sounded a little breathless for the second. Probably recognizing who I was. No longer was I a stranger to him, potentially named Allyn. I was the Nerevarine. "The Nerevarine! Oh, this is my lucky day!"

"Good day, good day," I murmured under my breath. He didn't hear over the spatter of rain on the ground and his sudden footsteps towards me.

"Nerevarine! I am Nels Llendo, but fear not, I am not the thief everyone knows of to such a beautiful lady. I simply wish to congratulate and thank you for--"

"Don't bother," I croaked, feeling my entire insides squirm at even the idea of someone thanking me for... for the events at Red Mountain. 'It had to be done...' He murmured. 'My friend. Poor Voryn.' Great, voices in my head, ancient voices, Chimer voices... Just go ahead and leave, Nerevar, if you want to return to rest.

Llendo looked levelly at me, then nodded and gave a roguish smirk. "I see," he said.

Just _do it_, Nerevar. I wouldn't begrudge you. Hell, I might even live, wouldn't that be a sight? I mean, I'm sure you weren't as pathetic as I was; you were never a beggar, then a thief, then a murderer. No one cares of Allyn, just you, Nerevar, just you, just _you_--

"--eh, hello?" Llendo had been saying things, but I hadn't been listening.

"I am sorry." I apologized softly. "I hadn't been listening. May I... please continue on?" I didn't wait for him, instead gently shouldering him aside. He grabbed my arm and I wondered tiredly if this would end in a fight.

"Now hold on," Llendo said, "I cannot let a lovely lady pass by me in such a melancholy. I ask your name, Nerevarine, and if you wish it, a kiss; that is all I ask for in my banditing ways today."

I looked Llendo over. I was half an inch taller than him; his face was finely shaped, as were all Dunmeri faces, and his hair held an attractive reddish sheen, arranged in such a manner it subconsciously made me want to slide my hand through it, even when sopping wet. At least he asked my name. I can't recall a person asking for my name in the past months I've been in this stupid province.

"Allyn," I replied slowly. "I am not sure if I want to kiss you or not." He was certainly handsome enough, but I felt awkward with the spirit of a man inhabiting my body.

"Oh, come now, you either want to or you do not." Llendo said in a theatrically broken manner. "Do not tease and tempt me so!"

I slid my hand through his soaked hair and leaned forward for a long, chaste kiss. No thinking involved. His lips were warm; pleasant-warm, not sticky-rain-warm. Llendo's hand came to rest on the back of my neck; his palm felt comforting.

The kiss made me feel like a fetching woman instead of the Nerevarine. How long had it been since I'd kissed a boy, really? Too long. I felt my hand tighten in his hair a little, felt his fingers twitch on the back of my neck and start to comb through my own as I started to kiss him for real. Llendo's other hand came up and cupped my cheek, the tips of his fingers skimming the base of my ear.

I pulled away before we got carried away, withdrawing my hand and awkwardly trying to pat his hair back into its regular position. Nels looked briefly dazed before he laughed loudly and gently pushed my hand away.

Oh, my, I just kissed a complete stranger. At least it wasn't bad. My lips were still warm; Nels was a good kisser.

"That was a good kiss," I murmured shyly. Nels smirked in an appropriately roguish fashion. I felt my cheeks heat up, and looked down again to let my hair hide my face. He merely brushed the black strands back and took a hold of my chin to make me look up.

"Yes," he agreed, taking his hands away once he was sure I would still look at him. "I will let you on your way, Nerevarine Allyn, but I do wish to see you again. I will remain in Pelagiad for a short time then I will be on my way. If you decide not to visit, or have no time to, then I can merely hope to encounter Your Ladyship on another road in the future."

"You... have been good company," I said haltingly, "I hope... to see you again soon, too."

Nels smiled charmingly and stepped away, brushing rain out of his face and hair. "I bid you a warm goodbye!" He intoned theatrically, bowing as much as his bonemould cuirass allowed before he turned to walk the opposite way I was going. "And do get out of this rain soon," the rogue called back.

"Goodbye." I stared after him until Nels disappeared behind a hill the road curved around. And I giggled girlishly, realizing that this had been a rather intriguing occurrence and that I wanted it to happen again sometime soon.

I continued towards Seyda Neen. Perhaps, now that all this nonsense was done, I could go pay a visit to the other members of the Tribunal, and see the different sides of Morrowind.


End file.
